Despair
by aomagrat
Summary: Nick and Judy have a conversation with a dying coyote


A/N: This is my first attempt at writing. Just a One Shot, short story to test the waters, to get my paws wet so to speak. Comments and criticism are appreciated. This story is inspired by the song "Carry me, Carrie" by Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show. It's their song, not mine. Zootopia any Disney characters that show up are Disney's. The coyote is mine.

…..

The call came in as an injured mammal in an alley in a seedy part of the city. The fox officer rogered the call as the rabbit officer drove to the scene. The ZPD vehicle stopped at the curb near the mouth of the alley by a rundown residential hotel and the two officers exited. It was just past midnight. The sidewalk was damp with dew and the street was dimly lit by the streetlights still functioning and the glow from the hotel's neon sign. The mouth of the dark alley beckoned. The rabbit carried a flashlight; the fox relied on his night vision as they approached the alley.

As they reached the alley the fox pointed to the sidewalk, "Bloody paw prints" he said. The rabbit shined her flashlight down the alley. The alley was narrow, only about six feet wide, too narrow for vehicle traffic. The pavement was damp and trash strewn. About fifty feet down the alley was a doorway, illuminated by a single bare bulb over the door. In the dim glow of the bulb, a huddled figure sitting on the door step was seen. As the officers approached, the huddled figure was revealed to be an emaciated and filthy coyote.

The coyote was sitting on the doorstep with his right leg straight out in front of him, his left leg held against his chest, knee bent with his left foot on the step. The foot was wrapped with a dirty, bloody rag. Blood was slowly seeping through the makeshift bandage forming a small pool under the injured foot. He was wearing tattered filthy pants and a torn shirt with the bottom third missing, the missing part serving as the makeshift bandage. His left paw was clutching his left knee to his chest; his right paw held a bottle in a brown bag. He was staring at the wall across the alley from him and he apparently took no notice of the approaching officers. He raised the bottle to his muzzle and took a drink.

"You're injured," the rabbit said as the fox radioed for an ambulance.

The coyote took another drink. "Am I?" he replied as he continued to stare at the opposite wall. "Who cares?"

The rabbit replied, "Someone obviously cared. They called us to check on you."

"Oh they did, did they? Did they call because they cared?" the coyote took another drink. "Or did they call because they didn't want to have to deal with my body in the morning?"

"Now that's a terrible thing to say," the fox replied. "We care!"

The coyote turned his head to look at the officers for the first time. The coyote's yellow bloodshot eyes locked with the fox's emerald eyes. "Do you really fox? Do you?" The coyote turned his gaze back to the opposite wall as he took another drink. "Or will I be reduced to two or three lines in a report you will submit and no one will read, to be filled away and forgotten."

"It's not like that at all," the rabbit responded. "We're here to help you!"

The coyote snorted and took another drink. "Help? What can you do rabbit? Can you raise the dead?"

"There are programs…" the rabbit started.

"Programs on paper," interrupted the coyote, "administered by bureaucrats with six figure salaries, each having hundreds of underlings, all taking their cuts, and leaving nothing for the intended beneficiaries." He took another drink.

The rabbit turned her attention to the coyote's foot. "How did you injure your foot?"

"Does it matter rabbit? Does the cause of my injury make it any less painful?" The coyote took another drink as he looked at his foot. The little pool of blood was a little bigger now, with rivulets of blood beginning to drip down the step. The coyote motioned to his foot with the bottle. "The pool of my lifeblood, but it is irrelevant. For the rain shall pass over it and wash it away, and the place thereof will know it no more. As if I never ever existed." He took another drink.

"What's your name sir?" the fox asked'

"Sir?" the coyote asked amused. "I have no name, not anymore. I have forgotten it. I had a name once, a long time ago, in another place, in another world, before cancer." The coyote took another drink as tears formed in his eyes. "When she was alive, when she could show me the way." The coyote sighed and wiped his eyes with the back of his paw that was holding the bottle. "But that time has passed. The past is unreachable, the present is unbearable, the future is unobtainable. In the end I'll be just another dead homeless mammal in the alley behind an abandoned building. No one will mourn, no one will care." The coyote drained the rest of the bottle and let it slip from his paw to clatter on the pavement of the alley. "It is now time for me to take my leave of you."

The coyote started to struggle to his feet, but the rabbit ran to him and put her paws on his shoulders. "Please stay seated sir," she said as she tried to keep the struggling coyote seated.

"Let him go, Carrots," the fox said. "He's only going to hurt himself more if you keep struggling with him."

The rabbit released the coyote and he got shakily to his feet and staggered down the alley, the officers following closely behind. The coyote stopped by one of the few windows in the alley that hadn't been boarded up. He turned and looked at his reflection in the cracked and dirty glass. A smile flickered across his muzzle as he reached out a paw to touch his reflection. "Carry me, Carrie," he whispered. "Carrie said that there was no mountain we couldn't climb as long as we climbed it together. Now she's gone and I've lost my way." The coyote began trembling as tears filled his eyes again. "Carry me, Carrie," he said again, and then collapsed to the pavement of the alley.

The rabbit immediately ran to the coyote and knelt beside him. She gently pulled his head into her lap. "I'll carry you," she said as tears damped the fur around her eyes.

The coyote raised his head and locked eyes with the rabbit as he raised a paw to her cheek. "Carry me!" he screamed and fell limp into the rabbit's lap.

The rabbit hugged the dying coyote's head to her chest. "I'll carry you," the rabbit cried as the siren of the arriving ambulance filled the alley. She looked at the fox, "Nick?"

"We'll carry him together, Judy," the fox said as he put his arms around the sobbing rabbit.

Together, the fox and the rabbit, with tears in their eyes, gently picked up the limp body of the coyote and carried him to the waiting ambulance.


End file.
